The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 4

THE MANCHESTER GUAJRDLAN 6 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7. 104 didiin the Mediterranean), and. for OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENCE THE INVASION C0AST Normandy's Cliffs and Beaches 'r By PRIVATE WISE 1 Though U-boats mav vet Bive Fleure ill with bunkeritis. It is astounding writer) how closely the language" of tho'German papers now resembles flat of the French in those days. They are concerned with convinctog a people by all available methods of persuasion and publicity that the fortifications are impregnable end will certainly resist all attacks.

The Germans, protected by the wall around Europe, will not give up prematurely. But the comparison is not limited to the ronitary measures. Just as some in 1540 thought thatHitler could not survive' a bloody defeat on the Maginot Line, so now Germans argue that an Allied repulse would induce us to make, a compromise peace. These are desperate illusions, but that they should be cherished' is not a discouraging sign for" us. -V "Conjunct Armaments Often enough in history luv British ships carried British trooia across the Channel to land on French soil.

No doubt our. own commanders have not neglected this study; Did they not, against so many wiseacres, pick a night of full Yet' as encouraging example they had the Zeebrugge operation, carried through by Admiral Keyes under the same full moon. There was a landing at Dieppe in 1708 and another at L'Orient -in 1746. Neither glorious, and the second was remarkable for the French commander's coming out in the morning to surrender the town, which he considered untenable, to discover that our general had re-embarked during the night in the belief that it was untakable. We acted in much the same way before Rochefort in 1747, and it was this expedition's uninspired caution that led Wolfe, who was on it, to remark that in war something must be allowed to chance and "fortune, seeing that it is in its nature "hazardous and an option of "difficulties." But that Britain could succeed amphibiously Wolfe himself proved at Quebec.

If we ourselves have waited long to strike, planning carefully and making as sure as possible, it is a course which would have been approved by Molyneux, who wrote of our early expeditions It is a palpable demonstration from the number of conjunct armaments these Kingdoms have fitted out and the many fruitless attempts that have been the issue of them, tbat there has been no right industry, no skill, or watchful industry. The consequence of this is we flounder and flounce about. Our present care is a tribute to the size- of our task. It" is the first invasion in modern times of a hostile Continent. Our earlier landings were petty diversions to support- large armies that had already landed in friendly ports.

"Germany seems to be seriously the first day it gave strangely little attention to our transports vulnerably moored offshore. far all; has "gone, said Mr. in a thoroughly satisfactory mannW.n--:Towards of the day he seemed confirmed in his earlier opinion that we had gained tactical surprise. One way of our seeking this may be found in the direction of our bombing; for days before we had been concentrating on the" Calais-Boulogne area, well away to the north. Possibilities of military distraction are still open to usj for can the Germans declare, if we have to choose, which of the two ports Havre and Cherbourg (both of them strongly fortified) we shall strive for the harder We shall not be able to judge for several days whether our foothold is secure.

The enemy will now be concentrating his reserves against its, trying with all his might to overcome the previous sealing away of tins part of France by our bombers work to which our parachutists will add. During many weeks we have been attacking the Seine bridges, which are the natural way by which reinforcements would go from Northern France to Normandy. Havre itself was reported cut off in this way from Rouen and Paris, while we now see the value of that persistent campaign against the junctions of Le Maps and Rennes, junctions feeding toe Cherbourg peninsula, which if we could capture it would be a most valuable region of assembly. There has been fighting in Caen, a town ten miles inland' with modern airfields (which we need) and two of Normandy's fairest abbeys, built under William the Conqueror. But distances inland will not be much guide to us until they become stabilised after the first trial of strength.

The Germans have reacted slowly, and we should not yet draw too much I comfort from that One of their problems -is this: "If we commit too much of our limited strength to engaging this present "landing, will another burst out else-. "where?" The cautious Rundstedt will want to see as much as he can of the whole picture before turning his reserves in any particular direction. In the same way, though we know the Germans are outnumbered in the air. we should remember they are reported a. ro nave Deen Keeping many 'planes in readiness for this invasion.

A with holding of strength until the moment for its best use is the mark of the supreme commanders; have not the Russians shown it? But we have begun well in this great enterprise, launched as Kesselring's armies fall back confusedly in Italy and while Russia; now supported by America's bombers, waits her moment. If we can gain during the next few weeks a foothold in France large enough for the deployment of the immense forces still here in Britain, the result should not be long in doubt. But at present the enemy has a superiority of numbers in France. We shall not be out of the wood as long as that superiority exists. By Word of Mouth With the help of the wireless and the aeroplane the war now comes home very quickly to those who wait and hope.

Dancers at that famous ball in Brussels may have heard the cannon's opening roar for Waterloo, but it was long enough before London had firm news of the actual victory. After months of silence and suspense the new assault on Europe came to us both nearly and swiftly with the many BB.C announcements and recordings of yesterday. The, recording from an aeroplane flying over France as the invasion was launched, the words of General Eisenhower, and the messages of the Premiers of occupied countries to their own people these bring urgency and actuality to bear on the news of the day in a way which has never been possible in any earlier struggle. One of the most moving of these records was the repeated instructions to people Irving near the coasts that are or will be invaded and warning them that they must be ready to leave their homes and all their belongings save the little that they can carry when news comes to mem that the Allied air offensive is about to break an specific German strongholds and communications. The notice so given cannot be a long one, for otherwise it would be a warning to the enemy as well We can feel for those who, having been long at the mercy of the Germans, must now fly from their friends.

The same fate would have been ours in 190 had had means and opportunity to enforce it. Illusions The great testing-inne has still to come, but the Germans must be already a little. tmccmfartable feat the invading forces have got a foot hold at alL They have been told so much of the irnpregnabiliry of the coastline, of the thooMiwIs of tons cf has poured into the beachworxs, of the miles of barbed -wire and booby of the elaborate defences. And' hive ther not the Fuhrers own assurances to rely. his sneers at the mad wntfijai.se, lunatics and drunkards'? A Swiss; paper, the St.

Gaiter Tagjbla' lias been uaiinifsitrng this week on the way in which the to be so o.witrinuaQs itfce have now fallen into it 500 feet above sea. West of the Orne low rolling country has some outstanding hills, with steep sides and pleasant but deep, valleys, especially Le Cotentin, south ox the line from Barneville to Carentan. To lovers of Normandy, the little city of Coutances on its isolated hilltop, crowned by a perfect monument of the tnirteenth- century arc, gives a summing up or delightful rural region, in which gems like the church of Lessay need all the 'care our armies can afford to spare them. The northern part of the Cotentin is more windswept and bare, its older rocks yield poor soils, its creeks on the west may be handy for. small boats, but those who land must be prepared in most places for a steep walk Uphill.

Still, there must be in this peninsula scope for airfields and the possibility of a strategic base for further action given air power to check raids on the vital centres to be established. THE CHANNEL ISLANDS The Channel Islands, heavily fortified by the Germans since 1940. can be of great value for our invasion, however little it was possible to defend them in the dark days four years ago. An aggressor on Cotentin could maice tne islands neip-less a crusade using the air bases and roadsteads and the enthusiasm of the islanders can help the invasion of the Cotentin. It must be borne in mind that there is neither a continuous possibility of useful landing all along the coast nor any great flat stretch of land just at the shore.

Colonists from North European coasts long ago sought out creeks and estuaries, and found water meadows after their own hearts here and there along the coast from the Orne to Carentan. That shore, east and west of Arromanches. has become known as Le Rivage Saxon, and its fair-haired fishermen as well as its northern types of houses are well known. The coast h'as its. seaward outlook, and its men have gone along with Bretons to Canada and Newfoundland.

But eastwards there is a gentle gradation rarely overtopping 600 feet right away to Paris, and this gives the Norman entries south of the Seine a special importance, especially if crossings of that river can be put out of action. The Seine itself baulks an invader because it has cut its way deep down through the chalk plateau, and the old castle of Chateau Gaillard defended a naturally strong bottleneck, Le Vexin, long a frontier zone between Normandy and France. ROMAN CATHOLIC CALL and persevering prayer to obtain God's blessing on the forces of the United Nations urged upon the clergy and the faithful in a call issued yesterday by the Archbishop of Westminster, Dr. Bernard Griffin, on behalf ot the hierarchy of England and Wales. DRIVE barrowful from the garage to the trench windows of the study here the Rector was to unload and pitch the books into a box marked "Forces or one marked just as he felt 'inclined, whilst I returned for another load.

When the two boxes were full we were to carry them into the porch, stack the contents, sheep and goats, on either side, return with the empty boxes, and then the operational cycle would renew itself. It was the Rector's scheme and he was proud of it. "Think of yourself as main-line communications, my dear fellow," he said. I shall run the marshalling yard." It took only ten minutes for the marshalling yard to become a bottleneck. When I marched up with the second barrowful there was no Rector waiting to He was seated in his swivel chair.

The two boxes were empty not a sheep, not a goat. The first consignment still lay tumbled on his desk. He was. turning the yellowing pages of a magazine. He saw me but was too much absorbed to be apologetic.

"Do look at this. Most interesting. A 'Household Words' for 1859. Now. where d'you suppose that's come from?" Heaven knows," I said impatiently.

"Bung it into Your job is to give your transport a quick' turn-round." But this wouldn't do at alL "I'll have to have a third box," be said. "for 'Knds In half an hour the situation had become chaotic. There were six books in five in about twenty in "Finds," and hundreds awaiting the Rector's pleasure. Sorry to be so slow, my dear chap. One has to pick one's way rather carefully.

This, for instance." He held up a bulky and aged quarto. "Clarendon's 'History: of, the Great Not exactly a find. I've quite a nice edition over in that corner. And not quite the thing for the forces. F.xceflent reading, but not portable enough.

At the same time I should hate to see it butchered to provide an embattled twentieth century, with tenet paper. I a fourth box, for He was like' that all the time, argumentative, acquisitive, as a ferret in a rabbit' Warren, He tteered Mrs. Burgess's rich argosy into the detfdrums and left it there. Never mindf I consoled her after wards. You got rid of hundred or two of the Rector's own overflow.

'jtsstst was sometmng. forgetting the A said tarfly. "On balance he's up. WoriW you Kke a Who's; Who for 1908 it eooM sneaxr rt awav wnen he wasn looking?" Sbe -gave my rmznoiish rlannei troDsers a glance. Yob eoaldnse it as a trousers press.

mra wnxLsacs. BIACIpljr TBSES roPowmgjage'tBe, qOelal blaek-out ndTBghfiajfcip, LONDON, tooday Nght At Lost Many people were wakened about! five this morning, by the thundering passage of the air armies on and on overhead, and many got up to see them and if the Day had come. At breakfast in my hotel the news was spreading. Some women sat at table eating nothing, with their hands clasped before them. Airmen on leave grouped togetner.

me els selling flags for the Red Cross i no sn.aU talk, There was none of the coming together of strangers as one remembered on the big days in the last war or the earlier eventful days in thiswar WbyaieiBtfrthe church bells nnainff tnoniy outspoken- heard. Gatherings round the news-sellers were the ionly signs on the streets. Everyone was thinking of someone over there in the liberation; Day in London Some sixty people, among them American 1 soldiers, three a chaplain, men and, -women from offices, and an assortment of the everyday passers-by of London, clapped then Jtuuids this morning as Mr. Churchill made; his first appear ance on Day. He was leaving the Cabinet offices for the House of Commons.

He held out a note to the Red Cross flag-sellers who had been wait ing tor nun and burned, preoccupiea and serious, to ins car. lie maae no sign and gave no jaunty recog nition. He was not smoking a agar. He went about bis work with solemnity on this great day of the war, the greatest since Dunkirk. That was the mood of London, too, for one saw no other demonstration.

On Dav people were too serious to go sightseeing to Westminster, Downing Street, and Buckingham Palace. One will remember the tense attempt they made to follow their business arid the long queues at every street corner for newspapers (two hundred queued for papers at a Westminster corner). I shall remember, too, a scene in Whitehall. As the 'bus passed the Cenotaph every man bared his head. I have never seen that happen before.

The normal was fantastic. A girl put it wonderingly to her companion: Invasion Day," she said, and here we are on a "bus going to have a cup of tea." The Navy's Part The great landings on the Nor mandy coast must have taken the Germans somewhat by surprise. In a vain endeavour to be strong everywhere they certainly failed to meet the attack effectively when it came. No serious attempt appears to have been made to intervene at sea, though enemy broadcasts refer to British squadrons of battleships and destroyers being attacked by motor torpedo boats and patrol vessels. If small craft accomplished anything at all the effect on the Allied operations was evidently negligible.

In all probability the attacking vessels were speedily destroyed; in fact, the loss of one of them is admitted by the "enemy, i the Editor PAYMENT OF RATES To the Editor of the Manchester Guardian Six, Most citizens think of the Town Hall, Manchester, as closing at five o'clock, no doubt, and regard tbat a nteasant hour far knocking off. That mar be why several citizens were annoyed, this afternoon to discover that while part of the Bates Hall staff continues to receive money till 4 30 another part that which, receives the general rate Closes ior cosiness at lour cues. It only increases irritability to point out to a prooanty worried nousewae wax somewhere on the demand-note there is a smaB-type notice to that effect. might save the lemons of public and staff alike: and some means might also be devised of actually closing the Bates Hall at the appointed hoar so that public ana star are not orougnt race to race, to their Trmtrral annonrance. If that were done, then the payment of all kinds of municipal accounts gas.

electricity, water, and general rates snoutd be saspended at the same hour, whether it be four o'clock or 4 30. ours. Batepatex. Manrhrrter. Sutse 5.

SECONDARY SCHOOLS To the Editor, ot the Jfadkester Gandaaa Sir. Many of secondary schools take pride in the quality of their snrfb- xQna wozw and successes gained rrrtifirati and university scholarship examinations. what of the tearnrtt who tram these poptts? They must fngn academic of leadership, and. T-nT'm. wi -work.

Tbexr ctduiaij scale salary, pas. -if larky. an of a few gzxBd- flpmpfdty termed "for' service of pfftfnnal value." 'Becenfxy Gove atiwni.it to izxveigSe large nsmbers oSo ffiwtitau teaching 'baver made -pi use of the aTWTiTtf tTt leachBox- aad rodrnssee. isaz aa ttjnri should have tae same basse salary. paxaeaauy.

trort ev slwuifcl not be acamSatedtn canaiazxtOB wdb taeor more fortunate tb1i Without etrtrfur into a disrxsnoe of the if miw live merits of the seeoodarri I sutBBit that position of. the hrt By tne msntr anhawv exaetag. YdcasL cussks June 3. sazp to the tradeia bss iaiiwe. TV a Somerset.

soars. eos Aix Scvr5. Bptel.TXgi ague Pea- 1 tig liriiej Jane J. trouble bv nieht attacks, the Roval Navy may be trusted to deal with this menace as successfully in the Channel as it nas done eisewnere. mere is no likelihood of larger enemy warships coming into the picture, for the only two siarviving German battleshins.

the Tirnitz and Gneisenau. are com pletely crippled, while the remaining units of importance, comprising two "pocket battleships," six cruisers, and two coast defence ships, are lying idle in the Thus the success of this undertaking has been firmly based-, upon Allied superiority at sea. -4f In the Abbey service of sprayer was being held this morning 3Jnra, side aisle of Westminster Abbey. Soldiers, British and American, were in the small knot of people which' looked as if it had oeen cauea mtormaUy together. "rWas'-iit," one '-asked, an invasion Jt was not' One other London arrangement was proceeding pian.

xne service was in- honour of ihe emtomnr nf tho founder the TJlCA Be one was told, would nad special collects at evensong at the usual nour. US. Soldiers in London American troops and nurses in Ijondra must have been infected by the native phlegm, because, unlike the reports of what happened in the United States when the false alarm came, they took to-day's news calmly like anyone else. The numerous American Red Cross clubs carried on with their daily routine but for the crowds round the loud-speakers in the. VS.

hostels one would not have known that this was Day. A Bayeux Footnote German commentators if one can use so tranquil a description at this fell moment seem sure that our attack is concentrating on the Caen area, which suggests a reverse Norman invasion. Near Caen is Bayeux, where, so far as we know, still exists that extraordinary historical pictorial record ot tnat invasion, the Bayeux Tapestry. When Napoleon Dlanned to invade England he had the Bayeux Tapestry taken to Paris as inspiration, and when Hitler intended to invade us as the culmination of the Battle of Britain he is reported to have in spected this tapestry of the conquest to fortify his resolution. It mav have been a disturbing reflection to him that not since 1066 had this island been seriously invaded, while many invasions had come from England to the Continent.

Now the greatest of all, with the exiles of the ravished lands in the ranks, is on the shores of the Continent making for the heart of uermany. De Gaulle in London Londoners would have liked to give a welcome to General de Gaulle; but learnt to-day that he had been among them for several davs unannounced. tie is staying with his daughter at one ol those small but exclusive hotels in Mayfair which are scarcely known outside the quarter. The General looks an older, a more haggard man man wnen we saw aim last He. too, was unsmiling and grim on Day.

A COUNTRY DIARY Berkshire. Jutte 4. When I was walking through a small belt of trees here recently I heard what sounded like a rather feeble and scratchy version of a garden warbler's song, looking about to find the singer I dis covered it was a mistle-thrush. It perched on a bough of a Scots pine and kept sidling up and down it towards or away from another mistie-tfcnish prob ably its mate as both birds were adults which was perched on the same bough bat up against the trunk. After had sidled cp and down ringing this sub-song, if such it was.

for two or three minutes I threw a stone up at it. whereupon it flew to the next bough and continued the performance- But when I threw a second stone it flew to another tree and burst into its true song. Bfisttothrushes have been heard this presumed sub-song before. What made the behaviour of this one unusual was the combination of the Tingrng and the sidling up and down the branch. Possibly it was a form of display, and as real a one as the imrtulti from tree to tree or the circling nights of the cock one sees in January and February.

J. K. A. LATIN AMERICA To the Editor of the Manchester Guardian Sir. Tour article Latin-American Unrest was most timely.

It; cannot fail to result in a general raising of intelligent awareness of Latin- American affairs in this cosntry. It has to be realised tbat the twenty- odd LatuvAmeriean renubfics present twenty-odd separate and ingnly indi vidualistic potrtfcal and emnomic problems, giving rise to systems of jBwero- mmt of disssusilar- types, ranging from the most vicious dirtatoi ships to pro gressive lfna laLJtA Yet it appears that if only the pattern will stay pot all can be recognised as. sesceetable. If rrn" the pattern coanges however. varying degrees ol non-rBCfflgn ttiou id out to the rrnsbenaved must.

to to move towards liberal regime and who do net tract (wzCt what Eood reasons!) taockaur ciwlf iQgd baflofl-bcflL wiieie even that sort exists as a detecBsnataon on the oast ox the United Jlatams who ace iituMiitjy mfr j-ijuyifywr in Europe and the East to fieer them 1 Jtm wnat can baiHfii to Stilish ncesnge tare, a very vital Trgton for utzr rjnwpei (yof it Klinfc.lt ve' a tat sort of inlet tientinn. for that plahuy is what it is ViOzrPel xegirae sn BoBvta nas seen, recognised, atthtngh it has in sower for nigh half a year- We did not-desay so locg, I ffriirtr in recogr the: franco regnxe. and nrrr xa all acci Witftfs st tmly-betaeve'fnat fbev baie aJGoweuii hr iit.wihicB.lg: the pursuit of pCaatanaataaan cg the grat i 1 1 ii it onsttry they Aid wbjcn they ifbezefcse It is dEfieuSMnee sense bt ar cbb- tamed cold-shoa Wring of the BoSvsm it does cotarer lycr.t and an odv xeadt in an hsSoa ox as already sitsztsorx: Youis. SaLi Tax. TVmrVn, K.

3-; By H. The Norman countryside south of the Seine grades so quickly eastwards into the interior of France that the Norsemen of old soon enough became Norman French, but their first arrival tells of the strikingly contrasted relation with the 'sea that is of such vital importance to-day. North of the Seine the chalk country of Caux has its valleys, some now without a stream, but in not a few cases they are cut short at a cliff edge instead of continuing to slope steadily down to the sea. South of the Seine the coast is more varied. Cliffs vary height but are low over long stretches, the lower courses of the Dives and the Orne are marshy and the' oolites give a rocky coast from tne moutn ox the Orne almost to the corner when at Carentan the coast suddenly swings northwards.

There is, however, one break in the rocky shore not far from the village of Arromanches. Beyond Carentan the peninsula of the Cotentin offers a wide variety of scene. From Carentan to Barne-ville and some way north is a sea floor of not very ancient date, geologically speaking, and the land is for the most part auite low. rising northward to the ridges of ancient rocks which help the defence of the Cherbourg roadstead and which are continued across the tide-races in the Channel Islands. Cliffs of two to three hundred feet stand out into a sea sometimes strewn with rock reefs of which those northeast of Guernsey and south and southeast of Jersey are notorious for the difficulties they create for the naviga tor in foggy weather, while the ridge of Alderney leads on to the Ortac rock and the famous Casquets with their peace-time light marking the fair, though stormy; way up the Channel.

The beaches of Trouville, the low cliffs near Arromanches. the sandy shore near Carentan have no doubt all been considered by our forces, while the rock reefs from Barfleur towards Cherbourg as well as the steep cliffs around Cbd la Hague have no doubt been allowed for. CAEN The ordinary, relief map of the country, showing a belt about twenty miles wide without a height of 300 feet westward from Dives, is almost misleading because the low plateau is deeply cut by rivers. Going up the Orne, for example, it is not so long after one leaves the marshy moutn of tne river before one nnds oneself in a rather steep-sided valley. Caen makes a river crossing, avoiding both the deep valley and the marshes, and this gives it a strategic importance that helps to interpret its historic r61e.

North-east of Trouville the chalk cliffs have much the same character as has the country north of the Seine one has mentioned; and beyond the cliff top we are on a chalk plateau that at its highest point approaches BOOK I have already alluded to the Stallybrass Book Drive and described its results as fascinating. Fascinating undoubtedly the results were, but we experienced stress and botheration and disappointment too before it was over. Usually it is Mrs. Burgess, the Rector's wife, who imparts to our war-time village life its quality of excitement and breathlessness. She raises the successive storms and then proceeds delightedly to ride them.

But this time, though as always Mrs. Burgess fired the first shot, it was the Rector himself who caused the compli cations. Edward." Mrs. Burgess said to him one morning in early April, "your books are like some awful fungus. spreading and oozing all over the place." Nonsense, my dear.

They make the place look homely and comfortable. "Not on tables and chairs and in dusty piles on the landing." "No dust here. Clean country air. So far the Rector bad been tossing the conversational, ball back some what negligently. He suddenly woke up.

"What plot are you hatching now, Caroline? -'Don't you think ifs time we had a book drive, dear? book drive? Queer, wnat is.it exactly? Mrs. Burgess drummed on the table. "Don't pose- so, dear. You know as well as I do." He did. of "Hunting out books for the forces and old rubbisn-that can be Reluctantly the Rector came round or half came round.

"WelL certainly Ibbk out some things for the am," fie wagged his finger. "nothing from this house is going to be repulped. If they want mere paper let tnem print less rusbtsn. "Splendid, Edward. You choose five hundred or so for the forces, and 111 go and see about some posters for the Afteraweek'spreriiiiiUfysoftpnfng-up by means of placards, bouse-to house canvassing, and an appealing coda to the Rector's Sund-evening rmon.

cumuoued by fwnytf wxm no regard for what had gone before, Mrs. Burgess made ber coflpction She wheedled the loan of a horse and out of old Jokes, badgered MFpyrrngtcn. the butcher, who is closed half the time, into driving it, and set off straight after tteeakfast Tne response was' ovezwbeimrng. She was-back by. 11 15 with a wagon-load, wfrirti ifre umiiprd in the Rectory Tne load came about 4 15.

and the floor of the garage negau to joox uxe aptasue model ox the Alps, the tridw top half of the VM fnl oancc letaeaeuledbygho'sWco for ms. xne -fleeter; surveyed mass: in silent as: "You'll have iebsrtis that lot. Mtl Bsrges Hettiernistao said with undtsgmsed satsfaeta Ah Thatal be the'RertorV toh. She turned; to Mn and smQed wirmiaglv. And sure encojehT the Radar's it turned out to be.

He roped me in as Eejiteu jut i- aadgw We offgamscd tbe wt operation very carefully: vsi was to tnmdle a a a O-faiZ-Te Bank's network of branches serves areas whera industry is ceaselessly engaged in vital war production. O-TYlOrroW -The same organisation will help to solve post-war industrial and commercial problems whatevermerr magnitude Consult tne Hanaeer'of th DISTRICT BANK UMITKO THE GUARDIAN MANCHESTER, WEDNESDAY, June 7, 1944 EUROPE'S. HOUR For the great event of yesterday there is no precedent in history. Never has-so vast a world held its breath in eager suspense waiting" for news of the landing of an army. Four years ago a small British force took ship from the Dunkirk, beaches, leaving behind it nothing but a memory like the ghost-like memory tnat haunts Corunna but taking with it, like Sir John Moore's army the spirit that was to sustain the courage of Europe.

Hitler seemed to have Europe at his mercy, and his mercy was, that of the ancestors the Nazis described by Bridges in his Testament of Beauty Ruthless invaders, live flre-brends. that spread The blast of their contagion to Allemand and Frank. Burgundlan. Vandal, and Lombard, from Angles and Dane To furthest Kelt These firebrands were lighting up red skies in one country after another. like a lamplighter touching into flame a row of gas-jets in a street.

The peoples of Europe looked this way and that in dread as the danger turned and shifted. Hitler, who had been so skilful in deceiving Europe, believed he could consume in these flames the universal spirit of man. He has learnt that he was wrong. He has tortured millions of men and women in his concentration camps, in bis German treadmills, in their homes, where every tie of blood or friendship or common danger is turned into -an instrument of devilish cruelty. But what has he made' of the spirit of Europe? Binyon has described the man who seeks to break the human spirit by such methods You shape by stroke on stroke Man mightier than he knew; And the fire your hammer woke Is a life that is best to you.

The Frenchmen to whom General de Gaulle, their great leader, has given the orders of their Government in simple eloquence are an army that has Learned in the school of suffering to face greater terrors than those of war. There is not a country in Europe, except Germany, in which the mass of common people do not long for the victory of the" Allies. No has so united her peoples as this barbarous man untutored by the warnings that Greek poets and Christian teachers gave to savage power. If Europe looks to the soldiers of the West in hope and gratitude, the West looks to the spontaneous armies of Europe with sympathy and admiration. The Landings "Something must be left to chance.

Our only consideration should be, is the honour and benefit to our country and its allies worth the risk No better illustration of those words of Lord Nelson could be found than in Mr. Churchill's second statement vesterdav when he confessed bis anxieties, now happily relieved, over whether the weather conditions (which had already postponed operations fox a day and night) were suitable for the accurate use of anbome troops in the early hours of that morning. Dropping them in such numbers was itself an experiment, and yet an experiment that had to turn out Tight, for these picked troops were charged with. disrupting enemy rear, breaking bridges. and generally holding tbe launder Geonans back whuelanded forces tacWed their beach defences.

While our parachutists fought under clouds lit through by the rnoco; minesweepers cleared the way for the Evasion armament, escorted on either sate by capital and lighter ships whose guns were later to jam bwrtbers in reducing the crs batteries. Our landings were made in broad daylight (smoke was used to roaskfus from the enemy) enrerj NOW Will mooned Fortune make the tide to turn Does reckoning begin on those whose crime, In insolence, put back the clock of Time, To make the World's Soul squalid as their own Where the killed victims are, what flags are flown What prospect is, that-from our banded few, Pledged unto Death, Earth's quiet will ensue The men go forward to a Fate unknown Fortune, spill a brightness from'ihy urn. JOHK MASEFTELD. Letters to MEDICAL SERVICE To the Editor of the Manchester GusTUiaa Sir, Dr. Leys points out one treat diSerenee between civil and Service medicine but does not ooint out that the "inherent disadvantage" of Service medicine (its authoritarianism) is in fact the main reason for its stxictlv medical efficiency." It is inevitably a regimented, service lor regimented oatients.

and any, thoughtful person knows -JiAt the efficiency or planning deoeads on the certainty that the nlans wUl be carried out. in tae forces a man off side is under the control of the Tpii-i officer tor twenty-four boors of every day. It would be a sad' reflection on the M.O. if the treatment were not efficient. Civilian cractice is enurelvnirSereot unless we wish our oatients to be under the same strict atsnprme.

If so. a State service can make it equally efficient and expensive (it is Quite common for a man discharged from the- Anny medicalbr unfit to have been six months or more hospital before discharge), but those who think there is same better way vahie more hirhly the human assert of their catiests their home responsibilities, and their sense of freedom. A. State service should be recognised for what it is. a method of giving some standard of atten tion to everyone.

If is mvaiuaste backward countries, but logic and exoerieace would aubjeaI 'that in a civilised community every oossible alternative should be exnlosed and rrcfloitrd before we adoct universally a system which, whatever its stxktl-r medical attxacboas. bound to limit the right deveiooment and exercise of human rwationsains. Xamsarethat goodwiB and, good understanding can devise something more attractive both oat-en ts and to six? stobabbr- Jess exueaaute too, Yccrs. w. at -Wmsfbrd.

Cheshire. Jane 1-Y3LCA. CENTENARY To dbc Editor of the Sir. Will you kindly permit me for the sake of acorraeyto correct a.sSxh error which crept mto jmr I Oor- resoondcace. your, issoe ca June wiOt reference to' tbe-'fuamiTn' of tbs YKn it was my envuese to GearR WiDisns not' a draper's wnen.

Be -ox HiScnoocK. iiogezs. Co, thepr fhm of 'Sxte deeessccs of the cock, -JBtes Co in J3fc Panffs did his shou ir If my falbei1. in 'the same, vyear nwi 'iTiemagu' as': an twwter." That was the customary those casBsctbe requisite sssce in WilSaaas bad fo some eighty miles of coast between th two ports of CLnbuuig and Havre, which we need to secure as soon as possible for the quick delivery of hexvy rnateriaL A first surprise was --tiieVTlsnmrkable weakness of enemy p'air'oppasitkxL; develop, bat itte'lAfnafCecM'xist' seek: -us in our gesnfer)fcaik potts (any nw than it asmF ttt' eat.